thumbup Split the baby: Questar Gas and utilities regulatory groups have reached a compromise on the underbilling controversy. It splits the pain between the gas company, which made the errors, and the customers who were underbilled, while holding other customers virtually harmless. That strikes us as fair. You will recall that the gas company underbilled about 580 customers by half, some of them for years, because of faulty settings on transponders connected to gas meters. As a result, the company's other 875,000 customers paid slightly higher gas bills. In the compromise, the underbilled customers will pay what they owe for six months of underbilled service, and the company will eat an additional $480,000 loss.
thumb up Slaughter, then protect: The gray wolf is a tough predator, but he's no match for human hunters equipped with high-powered rifles and scopes, riding all-terrain vehicles. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service removed the wolf's protection under the Endangered Species Act in March and then learned that hunters in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho were killing a wolf a day, trespassing on private ranches. They slaughtered 10 percent of the wolf population over the summer. A federal judge stopped the hunt, and The FWS decided to relist wolves as endangered. With these types around, they always will be.
